19 Electric Car Players Pitch San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is pushing full-steam ahead with his dream to make his city, and likely the greater Bay Area, the first metropolis in North America with an electrified auto infrastructure. The mayor’s office said today that it has received 19 responses to its request for information to electrify the city’s fleet. The responders include electric car players, like Better Place and ZAP, huge consultancies, like Booz Allen Hamilton, and a number of unknowns.

The city plans to solicit proposals for an electric car infrastructure from serious candidates by the end of the month. The greater goal, Wade Crowfoot, the city’s director of climate change initiatives, explained, is to have the city ready for the slew of electric cars coming onto the market by 2010.

And where is the mayor’s own electric car, Tesla Roadster No. 51? “I just got a call,” he told us. “It’s coming in a few weeks.”

The mayor also issued today a challenge to the businesses of San Francisco to go solar in the next year. With the help of CH2M HILL, who developed the city’s solar map, the city has identified 1,600 businesses with viable rooftops for solar. Each business will receive a letter offering a free energy efficiency and solar audit. Under San Francisco’s solar incentive program, businesses can receive $10,000 in rebates for installing a solar system. If all 1,600 businesses go solar the city could generate 170 megawatts of solar power. More attainable, Newsom says, is doubling the amount of solar to 10 megawatts.